How Do You Read The House Of The Spirits?
The following steps will help as you read “The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende. Although it is not mandatory, it is helpful to make yourself familiar with the history of Chile in the 1970s. The book makes no explicit mention of that Latin American country; however, the background political turmoil seems to be loosely based on the activities of two of Chile’s national figures, its communist president in the 1970s, Salvador Allende, and the well-known poet Pablo Neruda. Who is who? Salvador Allende was a renegade politician who moved the masses with his passionate oration and communist idealism. The politician in the novel has some traits of Salvador Allende, who was a leftist and popular figure and became a civil servant in the communist government as ambassador to France. Be alert. You will not be able to follow the plot unless you are aware from the beginning that the narration is neither linear nor consistent. In fact, we only find out who the primary narrator is at the end o
